- Ethiopia and Eritrea: Is a new war looming? – DW – 11/14/2023 DW (English)
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Tag Archives: Ethiopia
Ethiopia: Mass killings continue, risk of further ‘large-scale’ atrocities – UN News
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- UN experts say Ethiopia’s conflict and Tigray fighting left over 10000 survivors of sexual violence The Associated Press
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- Ethiopia: UN Human Rights Council must renew the mandate of its investigative body as crisis spreads to other parts of the country. Amnesty International
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Ethiopia: Nearly one year after ceasefire, UN experts warn of ongoing atrocities, including war crimes and crimes against humanity – OHCHR
- Ethiopia: Nearly one year after ceasefire, UN experts warn of ongoing atrocities, including war crimes and crimes against humanity OHCHR
- UN experts say Ethiopia’s conflict and Tigray fighting left over 10000 survivors of sexual violence The Associated Press
- UN experts say war crimes committed in Ethiopia despite formal end to conflict Reuters
- Ethiopia: Mass killings continue, risk of further ‘large-scale’ atrocities UN News
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Obsidian handaxe-making workshop from 1.2 million years ago discovered in Ethiopia
A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in Spain, working with two colleagues from France and another from Germany has discovered an Obsidian handaxe-making workshop from 1.2 million years ago in the Awash valley in Ethiopia. In their paper published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, the group describes where the handaxes were found, their condition and their age.
The Stone Age lasted from approximately 2.6 million years ago, to approximately 3,300 BCE, when the Bronze Age began. Historians generally break the era down into the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic periods. Prior research has shown that “knapping workshops” appeared sometime during the Middle Pleistocene, in Europe—approximately 774,000 to 129,000 years ago.
Such workshops developed as tool-making evolved into a skill. Individuals who developed such skills worked together in workshops to crank out enough of whatever tools were needed by those in the general area. One such tool was the handaxe, which could be used for chopping or as a weapon.
Handaxes were made by chipping bits off of a stone to make a sharp edge. They were not attached to anything; they were simply held in the hand when in use. The stones used were typically flint or, in latter times, obsidian—a type of volcanic glass. Obsidian, even in modern times, is considered a difficult material to work with because it is so rough on the hands. In this new effort the researchers have found evidence of an obsidian handaxe knapping workshop established far earlier than one has ever been seen before.
The researchers were working at the Melka Kunture dig site when they found a handaxe buried in a layer of sediment. They soon found more. They found 578 in all, and all but three were made of obsidian. Dating of the material around the axes showed them to be from approximately 1.2 million years ago.
Study of the axes showed them all to have been crafted in like manner, indicating that the researchers had found an ancient knapping workshop. The find marks the oldest known example of such a workshop, and the first of its kind not in Europe. The researchers note that the work was done so long ago that they are not even able to identify the hominids that made them.
More information:
Margherita Mussi et al, A surge in obsidian exploitation more than 1.2 million years ago at Simbiro III (Melka Kunture, Upper Awash, Ethiopia), Nature Ecology & Evolution (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01970-1
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Ethiopia peace talks delayed for logistical reasons
NAIROBI, Oct 7 (Reuters) – African Union-led peace talks proposed for this weekend to try to end a two-year-old conflict in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region have been delayed for logistical reasons, Tigray forces and two diplomatic sources said on Friday.
Ethiopia’s government and Tigray forces said on Wednesday that they accepted the AU’s invitation to talks in South Africa, which would be the first formal negotiations between the two sides since war broke out in November 2020.
The conflict in Africa’s second most populous nation pits the federal government against regional forces led by a party that used to dominate national politics. Thousands of civilians have been killed and millions uprooted by the violence.
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At least five people were killed and 37 more wounded on Friday in an air strike about 30 km (18 miles) outside Tigray’s capital, Mekelle, said Kibrom Gebreselassie, the director of the hospital that received the victims.
Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu, military spokesperson Colonel Getnet Adane and the prime minister’s spokesperson Billene Seyoum did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the incident.
The diplomatic sources, who asked not to be named, said the postponement of this weekend’s talks was related to organising logistics and that a new date had not yet been scheduled.
Getachew Reda, a spokesperson for Tigray forces, said the AU did not consult Tigrayan leaders before sending out the invitations.
“You don’t just expect people to show up on a certain date as if this was some kind of get-together,” he said in a text message.
Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu and Ebba Kalondo, an AU spokesperson, did not immediately respond to requests for comment about this.
Despite the agreement to hold talks, various parties have voiced concerns.
Some activists from Amhara, a region bordering Tigray that has fought alongside the federal government in the war, oppose the talks.
“The current AU-led peace talks process excludes Amharas – the largest affected group in the war,” the Amhara Association of America, a lobby group, said in a statement.
Even in its letter accepting the AU invitation, the leader of Tigray forces suggested he had reservations, asking for clarification on who had been invited as participants, observers and guarantors.
“There are a number of issues that need to be resolved before (talks) occurs, and mediators will then face a major challenge … to get the two parties to commit to a new truce,” said William Davison, senior analyst for Ethiopia at the International Crisis Group think-tank.
Meanwhile, the government of neighbouring Eritrea, which has also fought alongside Ethiopia’s federal government in the war, has not been invited to the talks, the two diplomats said.
Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Reporting by Nairobi Newsroom; Editing by Frances Kerry, William Maclean and Toby Chopra
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Tigrayan forces say ready to accept an AU-led peace process in Ethiopia
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NAIROBI, Sept 11 (Reuters) – Forces in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region that have been fighting the central government for nearly two years said on Sunday they are ready for a ceasefire and would accept an African Union-led peace process.
“We are ready to abide by an immediate and mutually agreed cessation of hostilities,” the Tigrayan forces said in a statement.
Tigray has set up a negotiation team that is ready to be deployed “without delay”, the statement said. The Ethiopian federal government said in June that the African Union (AU) should facilitate peace talks. read more
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Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The government has previously said it is willing to enter talks without preconditions.
The United Nations is ready to support the AU-led peace process, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “calls on the parties to seize this opportunity for peace and to take steps to end the violence definitively and opt for dialogue”, Dujarric said.
Tigrayan forces have been at war with the Ethiopian federal government since November 2020. The Tigrayan forces have accused Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of centralizing power at the expense of Ethiopia’s regions, which Abiy has denied.
Abiy has accused the Tigrayan forces – led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) which used to dominate national politics – of trying to reclaim power, which they have denied.
“The next step is to finalize a comprehensive negotiated ceasefire and an all-inclusive political dialogue to resolve issues underlying the current conflict,” the Tigrayan statement said. It said the negotiation team includes Getachew Reda, the spokesperson for the TPLF, and General Tsadkan Gebretinsae.
The TPLF has previously said it wanted free access for humanitarian aid and services such as banking and telephone links restored before starting talks.
The conflict in northern Ethiopia has displaced millions and killed thousands. Fighting re-erupted there last month following a months-long ceasefire. read more
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Reporting by Nairobi Newsroom with additional reporting by Michelle Nichols in New York; Editing by Catherine Evans and Himani Sarkar
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Ethiopia forms body to negotiate with rebellious Tigray forces
ADDIS ABABA, June 14 (Reuters) – Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Tuesday the federal government had formed a committee to negotiate with forces from the rebellious northern region of Tigray, in the first public confirmation of a key step towards peace negotations.
The nearly two-year conflict in Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populous nation, has displaced more than 9 million people, plunged parts of Tigray into famine conditions and killed thousands of civilians.
“Regarding the peace … a committee has been established and it will study how we will conduct talks,” Abiy told parliament, the first time he has publicly referred to the body.
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The committee, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen, has 10 to 15 days to hammer out details of negotiations.
Debretsion Gebremichael, chairman of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), said his group was prepared to participate in a “credible, impartial and principled” peace process and would send a delegation.
The TPLF – a former rebel army turned political party – dominated national politics for nearly three decades until Abiy’s appointment in 2018 reduced their rule to Tigray.
“We are not prepared to make secret deals or bargain away our principles for material inducements,” Debretsion said in an open letter posted on Twitter.
The TPLF accused Abiy of wanting to centralise power at the expense of the regions, while he said they were seeking to regain national power.
CONFLICT
Fighting erupted in Tigray in November 2020 and spilled over into the neighbouring regions of Afar and Amhara last year.
Troops from neighbouring Eritrea also entered the conflict in support of Abiy’s force. Eritrean and Ethiopian forces withdrew from most of Tigray in mid-2021 and the Abiy government declared a unilateral ceasefire in March. read more
Legislator Desalegn Chane said on Tuesday that negotiations should not exclude Amhara and Eritrean forces. Both fought on the side of the Ethiopian military, but faced mounting accusations of abuses, which they denied.
Last month, regional state media reported 4,000 people had been arrested in Amhara – including a prominent general, militia members and journalists. Analysts said it appeared that the central government was trying to reassert its authority over some Amhara factions; the government said the arrests were related to “illegal activities” and possible killings.
The war between the national government forces and its allies and the Tigrayan forces has upset Abiy’s plans to modernise Ethiopia’s sclerotic state-run economy.
Widespread reports of mass killings of civilians and sexual violence and allegations of ethnic cleansing also triggered Ethiopia’s suspension from a major trade agreement that gave Ethiopia preferential access to U.S. markets – a move the government said could cost the nation 1 million jobs.
The government has said the reports of rights abuses are exaggerated.
A U.N. investigation found all sides had committed abuses, but although the national rights body has released reports on abuses in Amhara and Afar, the full extent of killings and rapes in Tigray has yet to be documented.
(This story corrects attribution of TPLF reaction in paragraphs 5 and 7.)
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Reporting by Addis Ababa Newsroom; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Gareth Jones and Deepa Babington
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Ethiopia turns on the turbines at giant Nile hydropower plant
ADDIS ABABA, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Ethiopia began producing electricity on Sunday from its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a multi-billion-dollar hydropower plant on the River Nile that neighbours Sudan and Egypt have worried will cause water shortages downstream.
After flicking a digital switch to turn on the turbines in the first phase of the project, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sought to assure those nations that his country did not wish to harm their interests.
“Ethiopia’s main interest is to bring light to 60% of the population who is suffering in darkness, to save the labour of our mothers who are carrying wood on their backs in order to get energy,” Abiy said.
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Abiy’s government says the project is key to its economic development, but Egypt and Sudan depend on the waters of the Nile and have worried it will affect them.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry accused Ethiopia of further violation of a preliminary deal signed between the three nations in 2015, prohibiting any of the parties from taking unilateral actions in the use of the river’s water.
Water flows through Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam as it undergoes construction work on the river Nile in Guba Woreda, Benishangul Gumuz Region, Ethiopia September 26, 2019. Picture taken September 26, 2019. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri
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The first violations of the initial agreement related to the filling of the dam, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
There was no immediate comment from Sudan.
Ethiopia, the second most populous country on the continent, has the second biggest electricity deficit in Africa according to the World Bank, with about two thirds of the population of around 110 million lacking a connection to the grid.
The project will ultimately cost $5 billion when it is completed and become the biggest hydropower plant in Africa by generating 5,150 MW of electricity, some of which will be exported to neighbouring nations, the government says.
The government has so far invested more than 100 billion Ethiopian birr ($1.98 billion) in the project, state-affiliated FANA broadcaster reported. It is located at a place called Guba in the western Benishangul-Gumuz region.
($1 = 50.6000 birr)
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Additional reporting by Moataz Mohamed in Cairo
Writing by Duncan Miriri
Editing by Frances Kerry
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Ethiopia says WHO chief has links to rebellious Tigrayan forces
ADDIS ABABA, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Ethiopia’s foreign ministry has called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to investigate its leader for supporting rebellious forces fighting the Ethiopian government.
WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who previously served as the Ethiopian health minister and foreign minister, said earlier this week that aid was being blocked from getting through to his home region of Tigray, where rebellious forces are fighting the central government.
“Tedros Adhanom’s moral, legal and professional standing that threatened WHO’s organisational standing,” Ethiopia said in a statement late on Thursday. “He has spread harmful misinformation and compromised WHO’s reputation, independence, credibility which is evident from his social media postings.”
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The WHO said in an emailed response to Reuters request for comment that it was aware that Ethiopia’s foreign affairs ministry had sent a diplomatic communication, called a note verbale.
It said the WHO “will continue to ask the Ethiopian government to allow access to deliver humanitarian supplies and services to the 7 million people in Tigray, Ethiopia…”
The “WHO and partners have been repeatedly calling for urgent and unimpeded access to deliver humanitarian heath supplies and services to the people in Tigray.”
The government has denied blocking aid and has accused the rebellious forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) of requisitioning trucks sent in previously.
Ethiopia’s army chief has previously accused Tedros of trying to procure arms and diplomatic backing for the TPLF. He denied that. read more
Thousands have been killed in the conflict in Tigray, which spread to two neighbouring regions in northern Ethiopia before Tigrayan forces were forced to withdraw back to Tigray in December.
The United Nations says the government is operating a de facto blockade of humanitarian aid to Tigray; no trucks have entered the region since Dec. 15. More than 90% of the population needs food aid and doctors told Reuters last week that many people – including malnourished children – are dying because no medicine has been permitted to enter Tigray.
On Thursday, Tedros tweeted “People in #Tigray #Ethiopia, living under de facto blockade for over a year, are dying from lack of medicine & food, & repeated drone attacks. @WHO & partners call for safe, unimpeded access to deliver humanitarian aid to the millions of people in great need.”
The WHO said that its main call and that of the international community was to get access to those affected and for all parties to use political action to achieve peace and security.
“This is true for Tigray and elsewhere in northern Ethiopia,” it said.
Ethiopia’s foreign ministry said Tedros failed to show integrity and professionalism and was a member of the TPLF, which dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly 30 years before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s appointment in 2018.
“Tedros encourages the TPLF in his media engagements and celebrates what is presumed to be a military success of the group, besides engaging in selective outrage where he discriminately addresses the humanitarian concerns in Ethiopia,” the ministry said.
The government designated TPLF a terrorist group after the war erupted in November 2020. Tedros, a Tigrayan, was a member of the TPLF. Abiy also served as an intelligence chief under the previous TPLF-led government.
Tedros was elected the WHO’s first African director general in May 2017 with strong Ethiopian and African support. He ran again as the sole nominee in October. Ethiopia withheld its support and 28 other countries appointed Tedros for a second five-year term.
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Reporting by Addis Ababa Newsroom and Emma Farge in Geneva
Writing by George Obulutsa
Editing by Katharine Houreld, Alex Richardson and Frances Kerry
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Aid workers say Ethiopia air strike in northwest Tigray killed 56 people
ADDIS ABABA, Jan 8 (Reuters) – An air strike in Ethiopia’s Tigray region killed 56 people and injured 30, including children, in a camp for displaced people, two aid workers told Reuters on Saturday, citing local authorities and eyewitness accounts.
Military spokesman Colonel Getnet Adane and government spokesman Legesse Tulu did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s spokeswoman Billene Seyoum did not respond to a request for comment.
The government has previously denied targeting civilians in the 14-month conflict with rebellious Tigrayan forces.
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The spokesman for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that has been fighting the central government, Getachew Reda, said in a tweet that “Another callous drone attack by Abiy Ahmed in an IDP (Internally Displaced People) camp in Dedebit has claimed the lives of 56 innocent civilians so far.”
The strike in the town of Dedebit, in the northwest of the region near the border with Eritrea, occurred late on Friday night, said the aid workers, who asked not to be named as they are not authorised to speak to the media.
Earlier on Friday, the government had freed several opposition leaders from prison and said it would begin dialogue with political opponents in order to foster reconciliation. read more
Both aid workers said the number of dead was confirmed by the local authorities. The aid workers sent Reuters pictures they said they had taken of the wounded in hospital, who included many children.
One of the aid workers, who visited Shire Suhul General Hospital where the injured were brought for treatment, said the camp hosts many old women and children.
“They told me the bombs came at midnight. It was completely dark and they couldn’t escape,” the aid worker said.
Ethiopian federal troops went to war with rebellious Tigrayan forces in November 2020. Since the war erupted, Reuters has reported atrocities by all sides, which the parties to the fighting have denied.
One of the aid workers said that one of the wounded in Friday’s strike, Asefa Gebrehaworia, 75, burst into tears as he recounted how his friend was killed. He was being treated for injuries to his left leg and hand.
A survivor of an air strike by Ethiopian government forces receives treatment at the Shire Shul General hospital in the town of Dedebit, in northern region of Tigray, Ethiopia January 8, 2022. REUTERS/Stringer
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Fighting had forced Asefa out of his home and now the air strike had destroyed the camp, where even though he was facing hunger at least he had shelter, he told the aid worker. He had arrived in the camp for displaced people from the border town of Humera.
Before the latest strike, at least 146 people have been killed and 213 injured in air strikes in Tigray since Oct. 18, according to a document prepared by aid agencies and shared with Reuters this week.
RECONCILIATION EFFORT
In Friday’s reconciliation move, the government freed opposition leaders from several ethnic groups. They included some leaders of the TPLF.
The U.S. government said Abiy had outlined the steps he is taking towards national reconciliation to its outgoing special envoy for the region, Jeffrey Feltman, when he visited Ethiopia this week.
“We welcome the release of prisoners as a positive move in that context,” said a spokesperson for the State Department.
The European Union said that while the release of opposition leaders was a positive move, it was concerned by the ongoing conflict in Tigray, citing the latest air strike.
“All parties must seize the moment to swiftly end the conflict and enter into dialogue,” the bloc said in a statement issued by its high representative for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell.
The TPLF expressed scepticism about Abiy’s call for national reconciliation.
“His daily routine of denying medication to helpless children and of sending drones targeting civilians flies in the face of his self-righteous claims,” its spokesman Getachew tweeted on Friday.
The TPLF accuses federal authorities of imposing an aid blockade on the region, leading to hunger and shortages of essentials like fuel and medicines. The government denies blocking the passage of aid convoys.
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Reporting by Addis Ababa Newsroom, Additional reporting by Daphne Psaledakis in Washington, Writing by Duncan Miriri and Katharine Houreld; Editing by Frances Kerry and Helen Popper
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.